“With a few exceptions, most companies still struggle to understand the implications of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights,” Puvan Selvanathan, the head of the Working Group, said at the end of the mission. “Those that do have policies in place, in turn, face the challenge of turning such policies into effective practices.”

The UN representatives singled out for concern low-wage agricultural workers and harmful practices by the mining industry, among other problems.

They cited employee complaints about being paid less than minimum wage, as well as “chronic disregard” for health and safety measures, including the destructive practices of strip mining and “mountaintop removal” by the coal industry.